Wednesday, April 14, 2010

We recently installed some of our works in a joint exhibit at the Burris Hall Gallery at HighlandsUniversity in Las Vegas, New Mexico. We just drove down to disassemble the show but here is a synopsis of the show.

Melanie showed a series of her collaged metal plate photographic shadow box works as well as four of a series of House Head prints. The man in the photos is her closest associate and collaborator… me. Also included were our camera peep viewers from a show entitled “Cameraeye Voyaguer”, a cabinet installation of Melanie’s bird houses entitled “Bird Cage of Socrates” and a cabinet installation of mine entitled “Plato’s Cave”

The Bird Cage of Socrates derives from a intellectual dialogue with Theaetetus where Socrates equated the human thought process comparing it to grabbing onto a bird (truth) in an aviary of the mind. Many birds fly by and the chance of catching what one hopes to be a truth in the maelstrom of the mind is a daunting task.

Plato’s Cave relates to his allegorical story about the human mind discerning truth from illusion. Watching dancing shadows on the wall of a cave can be one form of illusion the same as most mediated experiences of reality … ie. television and Youtube. The source of the shadows the light of knowledge is, of course, the greater of the reality and leads one out of the cave of ignorance. The installation features wrinkled paper, about a thousand small paper cut-out moths suspended from the ceiling and a single light bulb.

Also included in this part of the gallery was an installation work of mine entitled “Otto’s Dream”. One large airplane in flames followed by four smaller airplane forms are suspended from the ceiling. Otto Lilianthal was the first to make a heavier than air flight using a glider. Essentially, he was the first man to fly with wings. He made two thousand flights using his gliders from a specially built conical hill outside of Berlin in the 1890’s, inspiring the Wright Brothers in their pursuit of controlled, powered flight. Lilianthal firmly believed the if man learned to fly, there would be no borders to protect and peace would prevail. He was critically injured after a crash and his last dying words were “Small sacrifices must be made”.

Two of Melanie’s kites were included in the show as well. One with an image of a toy house and another from her animal series of photographic tableaus featuring a rabbit headed figure and a rabbit marionette in the woods.

For more photos from the "Sleepwalking Songs" exhibition visit the Airworks Flikr slide show.

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ABOUT AIRWORKS STUDIO

The studio started from a simple joy of making kites in 1976 and has expanded to working with the themes of flight and air in sculptural works. The aerial sculptures now include the aerial acrobatics of colorful and kinetic mobiles, wind blown sail forms, delicate suspended structures, banners, arching bridge forms, wind activated works and installation sculptures.

We have been a collaborating artist team on various sculpture commissions, theater performance works and international kite exhibitions since 1996. Our combined works span a wide range of disciplines. Airworks Studio was created in 1999 to further the exploration into the realms of aerial sculpture.

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ABOUT US

G E O R G E P E T E R S

George Peters has a thirty year history of working with aerial forms from gallery works to installation sculpture, kites, mobiles, wind sculpture and banner works. He has completed over seventy national and international commissioned works for private, corporate and public institutions. He attended Art Center School of Design in Los Angeles and has worked in various art fields as a visual artist, sculptor, craftsman, fiber artist, environmental and installation sculpture, graphic arts, illustration, photography, film animation, digital imaging, architectural modeling, theater set and costume design. Since creating Airworks Studio, Inc. with artist, Melanie Walker in 1999, their joint works have won national and international public art commission awards.

M E L A N I E W A L K E R

Melanie Walker has an exhibition history that spans more than thirty years. She received a BA from San Francisco State University and an MFA from Florida State University. She is a mixed media artist and is invested in ideas. Her approach to materials includes photographic media, digital art, sculpture, installation, fiber art, printmaking, costume design and public art. She has exhibited her work both nationally and internationally and has work in a number of permanent collections including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson. She is presently a professor of art and teaches photography and alternative photographic processes at the University of Colorado, Boulder.